Discontinued Turntables :
Heybrook Hi-Fi
Made 3 turnable models from the early 80's into the early 90's, the TT1, the improved TT2 that came with a Linn Basik LV X as standard and the TT2e verion that had an electronically controlled DC motor versus the standard AC motor that the TT2 had.
Homemix
For info on the HomeMix TT2000 see Acoustic Solutions TT 2000.
Infinity
Made the futuristic Air-Bearing Turntable in very limited numbers in the late 70's, this was an attempt by the company to break into the turntable market and featured a couple of innovations like an air bearing and an odd linear tracking tonearm, but it was expensive to make, unreliable and did not perform as well as expected so plans for it were dropped before production was really started in earnest. But some portions of the technology survived, for reasons unknown the air bearing from this table turns up in the Coloney turntables and the construction techniques used in the making of the arm were used in the making of the Infinity Tonearms.
Jim Carson
At the least one budget DJ table was sold under this name, the WST-1200 Professional, not a good table and can be had used in Germany for as little as 25 to 50 DM.
Lafayette
This company made at the least 4 turntables while it was still in the hi-fi business, namely the T-1000, the T-2000, the T-4000 and T-6000, but the only model I have seen was so healvily modified that I am at loss to describe it, if you have any further info I would like to hear for you.
Lenco
This Swiss company invented the belt driven turntable which has been the basis for the bulk of the quality turntables ever since, their turntables were often sold under the Goldring name in the UK and as Bogen in the USA.
Lenco (STL)
This brand is now licensed by the Dutch STL/Supertech group and has no relation to those old Swiss Lenco's mentioned above but nevertheless they have been making turntables under this name since 98 or so, the budget L-3081 was discontinued in 2002 probably since their was not a lot between it price wise and the L-3086 that is still being produced. The 3081 is a basic belt driven semiautomatic turntable (i.e. features a tone arm lift) that sported a magnetic cartridge but unlike it's big brother did not have a built in preamp, wow and flutter was quoted as less than 0.2% and rumble as less than 30 dB, size is 417 x 360 x 108 mm and weight is 2,98 kg. There more upmarket L 3804 and L 3805 players were produced from 1998 to 2000 or so, are both semiautomatic and came with a Ortofon OBM5 cartridge (can use any OM stylus as a replacement), quoted wow & flutter is less than 0,2% and they both share the plinth with dimensions of 415 x 110 x 320 mm.
Linn
The Linn LP12 Sondeck has been made now for almost 30 years with only minimal changes, this means that owners of even the oldest variants of the deck can upgrade to a better spec using the upgrade options the company offers for their current models, and an alternative to that Naim offers the Armageddon power supply for the same deck. Clearlight Audio also offers a RDC anti-resonant platform cut especially for the LP12 and the Funk Firm offers a number of modifications for older LP's, these include structural mods and replacing the motor with a DC unit.
Luxman
Made quite a bang in the Hi-Fi world when they introduced the PD-300 player in the early 80's, it featured a small pump that created suction on the record platter, this turntable outperformed some of the more expensive European and American audiophile models by quite some margin and was for a while a reviewers darling, later the company introduced a variety of players using the same technology like the PD-310 and the PD-375. Sadly the Luxman company stopped making LP players when they were bought by Alpine.
Mark Levinson
Sold a high end turntable in the late 70's and early 80's, rumour has it that it was a top of the line Micro Seiki but judging by pictures it was acually a Nakamichi model.
Meitner
ADS, the company that owned the Meitner brand has a support site up for that Meitner and Musatex Melior, they have info and a user manual up for the visually striking Meitner MT-2 platterless turntable.
Metzner
Made the Starlight broadcast turntable in the 50's.
Michell Engineering
The Michell company itself holds out a nice page on their older models.
Monogram Professional Audio
Introduced the MPA TD1 high end direct drive turntable in 1977, this was intended for home use unlike the bulk of their earlier products and featured a high torque motor from Matsushita and was sold without arm.
Music Hall Audio
Has been selling Pro-Ject turntables in the USA since the mid-late 90's under their own name, the MMF-2 was a rebadged version of the Pro-Ject 0.5. Early versions of the MMF-7 differed from the current model in that they came standard with the Goldring Eroica H rather than as an option as with the current model, they are otherwise identical. Nota bene if you have an older Music hall turntable then most of the upgrade options available for the Project models are usable with the MMF's, furthermore if you have a model that came with one of 1000 series of Goldring Pickups you can upgrade to the better models above simply by getting hold of the stylus for them since the generator and housing of all the 1000 series is the same, they only differ in stylus profile, this is a simple and idiot proof upgrade.
Nakamichi
Made at the least 2 high end turntables in the early 80's, there is further info on them here.
OMP
Manufatured a turntable chassis intended for the DJ market, this was a low budget job that cost around 60 £ when last seen for sale in the latter half of the 90's, the design seems to have originated in the early 80's however and is a fairly typical low end belt driven design.
Onkyo
Personally I have never been a fan of their turntables, they were all a fairly average Japanese decks in their day, even when the company was making good products in other fields such as amps and Reel to Reel recorders, and to make matters confusing most of their models looked remarkably similar. There is an old review of the CP-1057 archived here.
Oracle
Oracle sells an interesting maintainence kit for their older models. Another Canadian company called Musical Fidelity (no relation) made a quite worthwhile power supply upgrade to the MK I and Mk II models, should be taken into notice when looking for a second hand model. BTW I have no idea what became of the MF company.
Ortofon
There were for a time in the early/mid 90's Discontinued Dual turntables turntables sold under the Ortofon banner in markets that Dual no longer had any distribution in.
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